Astronomy
esiegel | July 26, 2013"That's why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it's during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I'm like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me... I'm a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I'm not going to die out. I guess I'm more like a comet then. I'm just going to keep on coming back." -C. JoyBell C.
Here in the Solar System, meteor showers are one of the things we take for granted on Earth. In particular…
esiegel | July 24, 2013"But certainly the laser proved to be what I realized it was going to be. At that moment in my life I was too ignorant in business law to be able to do it right, and if I did it over again probably the same damn thing would happen." -Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser
You're used to the iconic image of an observatory's dome surrounded by a dark sky. From within, a telescope peers up at the heavens. And with a huge amount of light-gathering power that dwarfs a fully dilated human eye, we can use this tremendous tool to peek into the dark depths of the Universe.
Image credit: Fort Lewis…
esiegel | July 22, 2013"Most writers spend their lives standing a little apart from the crowd, watching and listening and hoping to catch that tiny hint of despair, that sliver of malice, that makes them think, 'Aha, here is the story.'" -Ayelet Waldman
Welcome back again to another Messier Monday, where we're all set to take an in-depth look at one of the 110 deep-sky wonders that make up the Messier catalogue. Looking at the nearby stellar remnants, star-forming regions and young star clusters, as well as the more distant and larger globular clusters, the most common of all the Messier objects are also the most…
esiegel | July 17, 2013"These neutrino observations are so exciting and significant that I think we're about to see the birth of an entirely new branch of astronomy: neutrino astronomy." -John Bahcall
You've been around here long enough to know about the Big Bang. The vast majority of galaxies are speeding away from us, but more than that, the farther away they are from us, the faster they appear to be receding.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA and H. Ebeling.
But it's more than that; when you look at a distant galaxy, because the speed of light is finite, you're actually looking at it in the distant past. Since…
esiegel | July 15, 2013"The image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy." -Ezra Pound
It's time for another Messier Monday, where we profile one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier catalogue! This was the first large, accurate catalogue of fixed, non-transient objects to be assembled, and it makes for a delightful collection of targets for skywatchers all across the globe.
Image credit: Alistair Symon.
All throughout the next month, the Summer Triangle will delight skywatchers everywhere, as it flies high overhead in the early parts of the…
esiegel | July 14, 2013"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" -Abraham Lincoln
There's a whole lot going on in the world right now, and you don't need me to tell you about it. You don't need me to tell you about injustice, inequality, persecution, or any of the other troubles facing humanity today, in my country and…
esiegel | July 12, 2013"By denying scientific principles, one can maintain any paradox." -Galileo Galilei
Day and night. It seems like the simplest, most natural thing about our world, that the Sun illuminates one half of the Earth at a time.
Image credit: Public Domain Image from Desktop Wallpaper HD.
While the Earth spins on its axis, orbiting the Sun, roughly half of our lives are spent bathed in the glorious daylight provided by our parent star. The other half is spent in the dark of night, our world illuminated only by the distant stars and galaxies visible from a great distance, along with a few nearby…
esiegel | July 8, 2013"Cross that rules the Southern Sky!
Stars that sweep, and turn, and fly
Hear the Lovers' Litany:
'Love like ours can never die!'" -Rudyard Kipling
Welcome back for yet another Messier Monday, where we choose one of the 110 deep-sky objects making up Charles Messier's 18th Century catalogue to highlight in detail. Originally designed as a catalogue to help comet-hunters avoid potential confusion with faint, fuzzy objects, this now serves as a wonderful collection of star clusters, nebulae, stellar corpses, globular clusters and galaxies, among others.
Image credit: Pedro Ré of Astrosurf, via…
esiegel | July 1, 2013"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" -J.R.R. Tolkien
Every Monday has been devoted to our ongoing series on Messier's objects for nearly a year now, and we've covered some spectacular objects, from open star clusters to spiral galaxies, from globular clusters to giant ellipticals, from star-forming nebulae to the rare starburst galaxy, and from the lone supernova remnant to Messier's greatest mistake. With 110 deep-sky wonders to choose from, each one tells its own unique story.
Image credit: Mike Keith of http://cadaeic…
esiegel | June 28, 2013"It's a wonderful world. You can't go backwards. You're always moving forward. It's the wonderful part about life. And that's terrific." -Harvey Fierstein
Yes, it's true. As stationary and secure as it seems when you plant your feet firmly on the ground, the reality is we are always moving through the cosmos.
Image credit: H.A. Rey, via Samuel J. Wormley of http://www.edu-observatory.org/.
About its axis, the Earth spins around once per day. Unless you're at the exact north or south pole of the planet, that means that you are in motion, too! The fastest-moving among us are located at the…
esiegel | June 26, 2013“...the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” -Carl Sagan
As many of you know, I'm fortunate enough to live in a city that values science and scientific knowledge so highly that the our local news station, KGW, routinely brings on scientists to talk about the lastest developments in our endeavors to understand the Universe around us. Just last week, I was invited to share five wonderful minutes of airtime with the viewers of not just Portland, OR, but (thanks to the web)…
esiegel | June 24, 2013"New stars offer to the mind a phenomenon more surprising, and less explicable, than almost any other in the science of astronomy." -George Adams
Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! The Messier catalogue was the very first accurate deep-sky catalogue with over 100 objects, finally topping out with 110 in its final form today. Compiled in the 18th century by Charles Messier and his assistant Pierre Mechain, this collection of fixed, deep-sky objects contains 110 of the brightest, most easily found and most spectacular sight in the entire sky.
Image credit: Tenho…
esiegel | June 22, 2013"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!" -Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you're a regular here, you're no doubt more connected and interested in what lies beyond this world than most. But how often do you truly get to experience the wonder of a dark night sky for yourself? Like a great many of you, I live in the city, and in a particularly cloudy, overcast part of the world. During much of the year, it's far too cold to be out stargazing, and for perhaps the…
esiegel | June 19, 2013"Science cannot tell theology how to construct a doctrine of creation, but you can't construct a doctrine of creation without taking account of the age of the universe and the evolutionary character of cosmic history." -John Polkinghorne
Out there in space, whether we look with our eyes or with a telescope -- a far more powerful version of our eyes -- we find that the Universe is full of stars, galaxies, clusters, and luminous objects everywhere we look.
Image credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo of http://www.deepskycolors.com/.
But if we look in different wavelengths of light than what our eyes…
esiegel | June 17, 2013“God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.” -Bill Watterson
Welcome back to another Messier Monday, only here on Starts With A Bang! With each new Monday, we take an in-depth look at a prominently visible random object from Messier's catalogue of 110 deep-sky curiosities, objects that range from stellar corpses to star-forming regions, to open clusters, globular clusters, distant galaxies, and even a few anomalies!
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons users Jim Cornmell and Zeimusu.
The objects in Messier's catalogue…
esiegel | June 10, 2013"It's coming right for us!" -Uncle Jimbo, from South Park
Welcome back to another Messier Monday, only here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we take an in-depth look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue, the first accurate and comprehensive deep-sky catalogue of relatively bright, extended celestial objects that can be viewed with even the most primitive of skywatching equipment under good skies. Each one of these objects -- ranging from nebulae to star clusters to galaxies -- holds its own, unique story.
Image credit: © 2008 by Patrick Freeman of http://…
esiegel | June 5, 2013"You can spend too much time wondering which of identical twins is the more alike." -Robert Brault
You've of course heard by now the news that Kepler, the most successful and prolific planet-finding mission of all time, has probably reached the end of its useful lifespan.
Image credit: NASA / Kepler Mission / Wendy Stenzel.
With nearly 3,000 planet candidates under its belt, including many approximately Earth-sized (and some even smaller), and many within their parent star's habitable zone, we now know that, at least planet-wise, we're not alone in our galaxy.
Image credit: NASA Ames /…
esiegel | June 3, 2013"In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer." -Albert Camus
Welcome back to another Messier Monday, only here on Starts With A Bang! The first accurate, large catalogue of fixed, deep-sky objects, Messier's 110-object-strong catalogue features galaxies, clusters, nebulae and more, all visible with even primitive astronomical equipment to skywatchers who know where to look. Each Monday, we highlight a different one of these for your enjoyment.
Image credit: Mike Keith's delightful (a)periodic table of Messier objects!
Today, for the first time since…
esiegel | June 2, 2013"...because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers." -Marissa Meyer
Before you get irate, I don't actually agree at all with that quote above; I have no talent for photography at all and a tremendous respect for those who do, and who cultivate it to produce something beautiful. So this weekend, the most appropriate song I could find for you was by a group known as Camera Obscura, and their rather dark ballad,
Your Picture.
Why do I bring up photography today? Because one of my blog's biggest fans, Felicity, runs a fun little…
esiegel | May 31, 2013"There could be no fairer destiny for any physical theory than that it should point the way to a more comprehensive theory in which it lives on as a limiting case." -Albert Einstein
Imagine: you've worked hard all your life, through your primary and secondary school education, where you worked hard to get into a good college, through your undergraduate degree, where you found something you were passionate enough about that you wanted to study it even further, and then through graduate school, where you spent half-a-decade or more immersing yourself, non-stop, in an area of research in a field…